He studied with Caspar Neumann in Berlin, visited pharmacies in other cities, including Frankfurt am Main and Strasbourg and attended lectures at the University of Halle.

[5] Marggraf's major work in inorganic chemistry included the improved production of phosphorus from urine[6] and the detection of alkali metal salts in plant ash and their identification by flame test.

[4][11][12] Other students of Marggraf included Johann Gottlob Lehmann, Franz Carl Achard and probably Valentin Rose the Elder and Martin Heinrich Klaproth.

He was unaware that the same process had been developed (and patented) by William Champion in England around 1738–1740 and by Anton von Swab in Sweden around 1742.

However, Marggraf described the process in great detail and established its basic theory, for which he is often credited with isolation of zinc.